If the past few decades of traveling for hunts has taught me anything it’s that scarce few can maintain high quality for an extended period of time. Once the pics get out; the outfitter always blows up and get very popular and eventually the place gets shot out. Seen it time and time again.
Northway’s situation got complicated once they blew up. They basically had an entire reservation to hunt for many years. They did a good job managing it. It went basically unhunted for a long time. It was a land of giants and lots of them. Then Northway showed up and the Monster Bucks videos. All downhill from there.
After seeing that Northway was making money other natives on the rez wanted to guide too. So Northway’s footprint kept getting smaller and smaller as the council tried to appease other natives looking to open outfits. In no time flat; some of the areas they were giving up were being shot out. So the neighboring parcels got ruined in a hurry. Meanwhile; Northway has a list years deep of people booked to hunt.
Fast forward and they get a great section in Glaslyn. It was remarkable; the quality of deer coming out of Glaslyn was often better than the reservation. Problem is; like I mentioned earlier is that people started shooting small. It started with just a few and became an epidemic.
Believe me; the high quality genetic material is there. The only way it gets back to what it was is to greatly reduce the number of hunters and impose antler restrictions. That’s a hard sell when you have bills to pay.
